I am writing to you to register my strongest opposition
to the proposed smallpox inoculation program as a Harvard graduate in public
health (1982) and internationally known authority in biological warfare
and emerging disease research.

1) substantial risks of common side effects from smallpox vaccination
to the general public and especially immune compromised populations, 2) inadequate smallpox vaccine safety testing record, 3) inadequate smallpox vaccine efficacy testing, 4) the availability of modern therapies to treat life-threatening
complications associated with smallpox infection, 5) the risk to unvaccinated populations from shedding infectious
vaccinia virus for up to 21 days post vaccination, 6) lacking sufficient cost/benefit studies of the proposed vaccination
campaign, and most importantly, 7) entirely lacking data from no risk/benefit studies having been
performed on this proposed policy.

Must I remind CDC and public health officials that the
cornerstone of legitimate public health policy legislation rest entirely
on this later premise - that above all, more good should result than harm
from the proposed vaccination program. To date, however, not one scientific
assessment of the risk versus the benefit of smallpox vaccination has been
conducted. Therefore, we simply do not know whether the proposed campaign
would help and save more people that it might kill or maim. Obviously,
this flies in the face of rational public health policy, and presents risks
possibly more pervasive than a threatened or actual terrorist attack.

The recent editorial in The Lancet (Vol. 359, No. 9313;
2002) should also be considered in this regard. The editors of this most
esteemed scientific journal asked, "Just how tainted has medicine
become [by pharmaceutical industry payoffs]?" They concluded, "Heavily,
and damagingly so," urging "doctors who support this culture
for the best of intentions" to "have the courage to oppose practices
that bring the whole of medicine into disrepute." This speaks directly
to your decision-making concerning the proposed smallpox campaign, especially
reflecting on the following information.

The little known fact is that the primary smallpox vaccine
producers, Aventis and Baxter corporations, or their parent companies,
are highly untrustworthy. They have been implicated on more than one occasion
in committing genocide. Genocide is simply defined as "the mass killing
of people for economic, political, and/or ideological reasons." Baxter,
along with other pharmaceutical firms including Bayer, is infamous for
having committed genocide against the American hemophiliac population through
their known sale of HIV-contaminated blood products. Both firms settled
out of court for what amounted to economically motivated genocide. As the
attached organizational chart shows (Link to: http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/flowchart.gif)
, Baxter is a subsidiary of American Home Products (AHP). AHP, like Bayer,
Hoechst and BASF, is a progeny of I.G. Farben - Germanyís leading
industrial organization that virtually directed the Third Reich and Hitlerís
economic war engine. After World War II, I.G. Farben was primarily broken
up into Bayer, Hoechst and BASF companies. Aventis is a subsidiary of Hoechst.
In summary, both smallpox vaccine producers - Aventis and Baxter - share
hideous legacies demanding caution, if not certain avoidance.

Please, for the sake of millions of people, public health,
medical respectability, and the future of this great nation, DO NOT SUPPORT
ANY POLICY REQUIRING FORCED SMALLPOX VACCINATIONS.